Dance with the Devil: Chapter 30

It was the next morning when there was a knock at the door to the Manning suite at the Metrocourt. Blair, dressed in workout clothes went to answer it and found Carly Jacks on the other side, dressed in a similar manner. “Hey, is he ready for a workout?” she asked.


Blair waved her in. “Yeah and thank you for coming at this hour of the morning. We have a ton of things to do today. I’ve got to get Jack and Sam registered for school, we need to go furniture shopping and I’ve got to coordinate with the folks down in Llanview to get at least some of our stuff moved out without emptying out the whole place, or my aunt will be fuming when she gets back from DC.”


Carly looked around the room and indicated to Blair that the couch needed to be moved in order to have room for the therapy session. As the pushed the couch back, Carly asked her, “They’ll be going to the public school?”


“Yeah, Sam’s entering second grade and Jack’s a sophomore. He’s at Port Charles High right now for a soccer tryout. Starr took Sam to the store for some new clothes for school so we have the place to ourselves,” Blair explained.


As they finished rearranging the room, Todd wheeled himself in. He was just in a pair of sweatpants and talking on his Bluetooth device. While he normal hated using it, he found it was much easier for him to have it in while maneuvering the chair “Yeah, I should be in this afternoon. Make sure the layouts are on my desk by then,” he said as he ended the call. “Did you approve the layout for tomorrow’s morning edition?” he asked Blair.


“No, I haven’t even seen anything since yesterday. We’ve been so busy with other things,” she said.


Todd locked the chair in place as he was assisted down to the floor. “Well, then, someone is getting fired. I was just told that you had approved it.” Once he was on the floor, he waggled an eye at Carly. “Well, hello, we meet again like this.”


Carly smirked at his putrid attempt at flirting. She turned to Blair. “Tell me again who it was you sent through a window and why. Because I don’t want to be next on your hit list,” she said to the other woman.


“Oh, that was Tea and it was because she was trying to steal my daughter,” Blair said. “It was a very bad time, for me, for us and Tea just pushed the wrong buttons with me and…” Blair gestured a shove to Carly.


“To be fair, Delgado was looking for a reaction. She just didn’t expect it to be so forceful,” Todd added.


Carly smiled at the two. “I knew I like you better for a reason,” she said to Blair’s curious gaze, Then she elaborated. “My encounter with her was brief and brutal. She wanted Todd out of town and away from Starr and when Todd tried to give her some information, she didn’t let him get a word in edgewise.”


“Sounds like Tea,” Blair huffed.


Todd nodded. “Yeah, after she left, Carly and I agreed that we liked you better.” He was laying on his back as Carly began the session, instructing Blair in some basics for her to work on daily with Todd.


As the continued the workout, Carly asked the question she had been dying to know since she first saw them in action at the courthouse earlier in the year. “Okay then, how did you two meet?”


Todd’s eyes grew mischievous as he answered, “In a bar over a Louis Armstrong song.”


Blair rolled her eyes at him. “We’ve had this argument before and you were the one who corrected me.” She looked up at Carly. “The song was Unforgettable by Nat King Cole. We were both trying to drown our sorrows over being reject by two others and we struck up a conversation.”


“Which led to ‘The Most Pathetic Contest.’ Which led to our friendship,” Todd said.


“And you were married three times, right?” Carly asked.


“Yeah, three times to him and twice to the other Todd,” Blair said sheepishly. “But our second wedding was the most magical. After a church service, he set up a private reception. And as we danced, gold balloons fell from the ceiling.” Blair got up and went into the bedroom. She came out holding a worn photograph.


Carly had to laugh a little when she saw Todd in the picture. His hair was long and he had a goatee. “What were you, the wild man back then?” she asked.


“I was trying to be a rebel, that’s for sure. Even with thirty million in the bank, I didn’t want to look the part,” he said.


“And your dress, it was gorgeous!” Carly exclaimed.


“Yeah can you tell I was pregnant at the time? I always like to say it was a party of three that night,” Blair said with a sad smile.


“This was your second?” Carly asked.


Blair’s cheeks flushed when she told Carly about their first marriage. “I had kinda of learned that he was Victor Lord’s son and heir and sort of told him I was pregnant.”


“And I wanted the kid to grow up with both it’s parents so we got married and then I learned who I was,” Todd said. “Ironically enough, on our wedding night, she did get pregnant, but…”


“I’m sorry,” Carly said in an understanding tone.


“But after I miscarried, we decided to try again and that’s when I was pregnant with Starr. Unfortunately, he learned about my…miscalculation and we spilt up. And when I did find out, I was so mad at him, I almost didn’t tell him. But we found our way back to one another and we were married shortly afterwards,” Blair finished.


“True love,” Carly said simply.


Blair and Todd just smiled at each other when Todd remembered he had to tell Carly something. “By the way, we’ll be moving out of your hotel.”


“It’s about time. You buy a paper but not a house,” she said with a laugh. “Where is the Manning family moving to?”


Blair grabbed a paper off the desk. “70 Harbor View Road. It’s got a gatehouse where Starr and Todd’s niece Sarah will be living, a pool, which Sam loves and a lot of acreage,” she told their friend.


Carly had a smirk on her face. “I hope you enjoy your neighbors,” she finally said, cryptically. When Blair threw Carly a confused look, the blonde explained, “Michael’s grandmother is Dr. Monica Quartermaine. She’s chief of staff at General Hospital. When she married Dr. Alan Quartermaine, he bought the estate for her, but his family moved in with them. That’ll be Edward, Alan’s father and Tracy, Alan’s sister. The long-running feud has been that Monica owns it, but keeps threatening to throw the family out. They are entertaining, to say the least.”


They finished the session and she left. Todd was back in his wheelchair and had gone into the bathroom to wash up. When he was dressed, Blair was still in the main room, looking at the picture. He moved over to her. “Hey, I’ll make you a promise. When we dance at our wedding, there will be golden balloons,” he said.


There was a knock at the door again and Blair got up to answer it. “Did you forget to tell me something more about our new neighbors, Carly?” she asked as she opened the door to find Bo and Nora Buchanan in the hall.


“Bo, Nora, uh, come in,” she said haltingly.


“Thank you, Blair,” Bo said politely. “Todd.”


Todd eyed the Llanview DA and former police commissioner warily. He sighed as he asked, “What do you two want?”


“Nice to see you too,” Nora said sarcastically. “We’re here about your brother’s murder.”


“Shooting, you mean. That is, if you’ve seen that video from the park here that shows the bastard’s still very much alive,” Todd said, that evil smirk of his on his face.


Nora looked green at the mention of the non-murder. “Fine. I need to talk to you about the shooting of your twin brother Victor Lord, Jr.” She sat down as Todd swiveled to face her. “You confessed to shooting and killing him.”


“Yes, and I was found not guilty by a jury for reasons of temporary insanity due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Madame Prosecutor. And if you need more experts to back that up, talk to Dr. Ewen Keenan at the hospital here,” he said, his voice getting louder. “You know, I know you hate my guts and have for a long time. I know you will do anything to get me behind bars again. But the truth of the matter is, the only memory I have of that night is pulling the trigger and talking to his body. I don’t remember getting there, I don’t remember leaving.”


“Okay, calm down, Manning. You say you don’t remember anything other than that,” Bo said, really struggling with what to even ask. “Look, it’s obvious he’s not really dead. Could this tie into anything to do with your mother’s organization? She was in line for his estate, as little as the will made sense.”


Blair walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder to calm him. Todd let out a breath. “I have no idea what it could be or what my mother’s connection to any of this is,” he said as he looked at his watch. “Look I need to get going. I am a very busy man.” With that, he wheeled himself out of the suite and to his office.


Blair stood up and faced Nora. “If you have any more questions for him, please them to me first and I’ll see if he’s up to it, Mrs. Buchanan,” she said as politely as she could muster. She opened the door for the two and they left. Blair then went back to the couch and picked up the wedding picture that was left on the coffee table. She sat back and got lost in the memories of the one perfect day.


While she was in the room, Todd was up in his office. He was trying to concentrate on work, but his mind was wandering. Images were assaulting him--pulling the trigger; the rain down by the docks; Tea after Victor’s funeral; seeing Irene up ay Viki’s cabin as she pushed him to remember what he had done; kneeling at his brother’s grave, asking if he still missed them. He closed his eyes, trying to banish the images. When he opened them, he saw a figure standing before him. The figure turned around to face him, a cocky but less-than-charming smile on his face.


“Nice place, brother,” said Victor Lord Jr.


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